


just believe in what my lips have to say

by ORiley42



Series: The Adventures of SuperCorp [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, First Date, Fluff and Humor, Relationship Advice, Slow Dancing, Useless Lesbian Lena Luthor, honestly someone help her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-03 19:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10973409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ORiley42/pseuds/ORiley42
Summary: Lena Luthor has acquired two (2) friends and has now decided that the time is right to finally ask Kara Danvers out on a date....





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing this ship, and I could not get these two out of my head...I just? love them!  
> I've got the rest of this fic planned out, and will update as I finish filling in my outline. <3

“Are we friends, Wendy?” Lena asked one morning as she handed over $3.95 to the owner of the food cart two blocks from L-Corp that served the best coffee in National City.

“Well, I’d sure like to think so,” Wendy replied cheerily, passing Lena her triple-shot espresso. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’ve been in town for quite a while now and I just feel like...I haven’t been doing terribly well on any social fronts.”

“Nonsense,” Wendy scoffed, “Why, haven’t I seen you with that pretty blonde girl on your arm nearly every day this week?”

“I – I mean she’s not – that is – she’s my friend, yes, but....” Lena’s sputtering died out under Wendy’s knowing gaze. Crossing her arms, Lena changed tack and squinted back at her. “You know, you’ve got eyes like a hawk...if you have any interest in going into private security, let me know.”

“Eh, I had enough of that kind of drama during my tour with the Green Berets,” Wendy shrugged.

Lena blinked, “What? As in, the special forces?”

“No, that was the name of my rock band. You would not _believe_ the pickles we got ourselves into. Pretty sure we’re still wanted in a few West coast states. And Prague.”

Lena let out a surprised laugh. “Wendy, you’re full of surprises.”

“Better than being full of other things,” she replied with a wink.

“I guess so,” Lena agreed, before bidding her friend goodbye and walking away with a smile.

This must be a record, she thought, as the elevator dinged open on the top floor of her building, I’ve got _two_ whole friends. Wendy and...

Lena almost tripped over a potted plant as realization dawned on her. She course corrected quickly and managed to make her way down the hall, brushing past her secretary with a weak, “hello!” and scooting into her office to collapse heavily in her desk chair.

See, the thing was, when Kara had been her one and only friend, it had been simple. She couldn’t risk the only healthy relationship she had in pursuit of something romantic, no matter how breathtaking Kara was, or how the world seemed to get visibly brighter when she was around, or how she made Lena’s heart stumble in her chest. She just couldn’t do it, not when the possibility of messing up meant losing Kara and therefore her best and strongest tether to the world. Minimizing that risk was just logical. But with _two_ friends...that excuse started to take on water.

And, this all led to the conclusion that Lena no longer had a rational reason not to try and ask Kara out. This was, for some reason not entirely clear to Lena, a thoroughly terrifying prospect.

“Okay,” Lena muttered to herself, sitting up straight. “Okay, let’s deal with this. Step one, define the problem.”

She flipped open the lid of her laptop and opened a blank document, fingers poised over the keyboard before hesitantly typing:

_Problem: Kara Danvers is ridiculously beautiful_

No, that wasn’t right.

_Problem: Kara Danvers is ridiculously beautiful, smart, kind and –_

Ok, this wasn’t going to work. Lena shoved her computer to the side and pulled out an old fashioned paper and pen. This was going to require a _flowchart_.

An hour later there were several pieces of paper taped together across the desk, with lots of thick marker arrows and circles and detailed footnotes – and Lena still hadn’t come to any useful conclusions vis a vis whether to or how to ask one Ms. Danvers out for dinner.

“Excuse me, Ms. Luthor?” Angeline, Lena’s newest secretary, knocked lightly and cracked the door open.

“I don’t think this flowchart is helping,” Lena announced mournfully, propping her head up on her chin. “Flowcharts always help. Do you know, I’ve never been let down by a good, solid flowchart?”

Angeline did not know this, of course, because she’d only been hired a week ago, and as such, had no knowledge of the intrinsic role flowcharts had played in a great deal of Lena’s life.

“I’m sorry, I’m distracted.” Lena began to clean up the mess on her desk, “What is it?”

“Oh, the head of R&D just called, something came up and he wondered if it would be alright to move your meeting with him back a few hours.”

“That’s fine,” Lena agreed with a wave of her hand, drifting back to her slightly panicked thoughts. “Oh, Angeline?”

“Yes?” she paused in the doorway.

“Do I have anything else on my schedule this morning?”

Angeline consulted her tablet quickly and replied, “You’re free for the next half an hour, before you’re supposed to meet with the marketing department.”

“Half an hour,” Lena muttered to herself, grabbing her purse and heading for the door. “Hold my calls, I’ll be back soon.”

“Ooh, back already?” Wendy called as Lena approached her a few minutes later, “I shouldn’t sell you another espresso though, your heart might not take it...”

“That’s alright, what I’m really here for is...” Lena plucked nervously at the sleeve of her coat, wondering if she was overstepping the bounds of their newfound friendship, “is some advice.”

Wendy nodded sagely and leaned forward, bracing her forearms against her stall’s counter before saying clearly, “A couple of bricks is all it takes, and whatever you chuck over the side of the docks on the East side won’t ever come back up.”

Deciding after a moment that it would probably be best for all parties involved if she didn’t ask a follow up question to that bit of advice, Lena pressed on and said, “Actually, I’m having a bit of girl trouble.”

“Ah. That blonde, eh?” Wendy grinned knowingly, “They’re always heartbreakers, you know.”

“I don’t know, really. I don’t know anything,” Lena admitted, slumping against one of the stall’s dented steel struts. “You can show me a malfunctioning capacitor and I’ll set it right in a second, but show me a pretty girl and suddenly my ability to speak English, much less complete sentences, goes right out the window.”

“But, I imagine you’ve probably said a few words to this girl in the time you’ve known her,” Wendy pointed out, sensibly.

“Well, yes, but that was _different_. It was business, and then she was a sort of acquaintance, and then we just sort of slipped into friendship...”

“And it was easy, right?”

“Yes...”

“See, so you just keep going the way you are,” Wendy concluded. “You don’t have to force anything, and you don’t have to act differently around her – she’s still your friend. Just, a friend you’d like to make wild, passionate love to on a moonlit beach, while the lights of the faraway city glint off the waves.” Wendy looked somewhere into the middle distance, clearly reliving a past adventure.

“Um....right,” Lena began, pulling Wendy out of her daze, “I guess my problem is how to get from Point A to Point B regarding friendship to...more than friends.”

“Well, there is one surefire way to win her over...” Wendy mused.

Lena leaned forward eagerly.

“First,” Wendy held up a finger solemnly, “you claim you know how to juggle to impress some new acquaintances you met while doing an anthropological study of under-bridge graffiti. This is key. Then, one of your new friends tells _his_ friend that you know how to juggle, and you end up getting recruited by a circus that’s in town to fill in when their clown gets smashed on jello shots and sprains his wrist trying to pole dance.”

Lena wondered vaguely if she should be writing this down, for posterity if nothing else.

“Then, you quickly find a reclusive juggling master living in an abandoned spaghetti factory to teach you the art in the two hours before the show, and at the last minute, you send a gold-embossed, rose-scented invitation to the circus to your gal. She shows up, sees your fantastic performance, and is so blown away that she immediately demands you elope with her and then take a cruise to the Galapagos Islands for your honeymoon.”

There was a moment of silence as Wendy finished speaking, where the sounds of the city seemed to go quiet before gently revving back up, as if they were giving her speech a wide, respectful berth.  

“You know, Wendy,” Lena began slowly, “I’m never really sure when you’re kidding.”

“Neither am I,” Wendy replied wisely, “It keeps life interesting.”

“Of course,” she added, “There is another way, less surefire, but simpler...”

“And that is?” Lena asked hopefully, praying that this bit of advice included fewer circus members.

Wendy smiled kindly and reached out to pat Lena’s hand, “You go up to the girl and ask if she’d like to go out to dinner with you sometime.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good advice, Wendy! Will Lena take it? TBC....
> 
> Let me know what you thought! <3


	2. Chapter 2

Lena didn’t absorb a single word at that morning’s meeting with the marketing department. Granted, she despised marketing meetings and rarely picked up on more than a phrase like “target customer demographic” and “strategic deployment,” but today her head was even further in the clouds than usual.

The question on her mind was: _how_ should she ask Kara out? Should she send her a letter? That seemed too formal. Should she send her one of those candygrams, or one of those singing messengers? No, that would probably just be embarrassing for everyone involved (though she did scribble down ‘box of chocolates?’ in the margins of her notes for future consideration).

Around the time a dull man in a dull suit starting pulling out big cardboard graphs and pointing at them as if they were important, Lena came to the realization that the best way to go about this particular endeavor was probably to do exactly what Wendy had suggested: walk up to Kara and just ask if she wanted to go out to dinner.

Perhaps I really am a Luthor, Lena thought with a touch of scorn, since I don’t seem to be comfortable with any plan that isn’t totally convoluted and bizarre.

As the meeting came to an end and she shook hands with the people around her, exchanging basic pleasantries and nodding when it seemed expected, Lena decided that there was no time like the present. She’d go see Kara this day, this hour even. Otherwise, her nerve might fail her and she might spend even more months pining hopelessly away.

And so with single-minded determination, Lena cleared her lunch hour, pushed her rising anxiety back down, and headed for CatCo.

Once there, she definitely did not sit in her car for five minutes chanting, _You can do this, You can do this, you can_ do _this_.

She also definitely didn’t get dizzy on the elevator ride up to Kara’s floor because she was holding her breath.

And she _definitely_ didn’t jump behind the giant pink panther statue guarding the entrance when she spotted Kara’s blonde ponytail swinging around a corner.

“Um, Ms. Luthor?”

The hesitant voice had Lena nearly leaping out of her skin, whipping around to see a small man with hunched shoulders peering nervously at her.

“Hello,” Lena replied, voice coming out too high.

“Hi,” the man replied, giving a little wave, “I didn’t mean to interrupt your, uh, hiding...”

“I am _not_ hiding,” Lena declared, sounding very confident for someone who was absolutely hiding. “And who are you?”

“Right, of course, I’m Winn, Winn Schott.” Winn held out a hand which Lena shook primly. “I just saw you come in, and I’m a friend of Kara’s so I thought I’d say hi, but now I’m thinking that this was not the right choice...” He trailed off.

“No, it’s fine. I’m sorry if I’m being a bit abrupt, I’m just...” Lena waved a hand vaguely in the air, hoping that would suffice as an answer.

“Uh huh...” Winn squinted at her, then hopped forward to peek around the edge of the statue, before bouncing back and saying, “Well, I was going to ask if you were looking for Kara but you seem to be doing the opposite so...”

“I’m just, um, collecting myself for a moment,” Lena explained weakly, “Before I ask her...something.”

For a moment, Winn just kept looking at her with a mixture of confusion and suspicion, before that expression cleared away to reveal one of sympathetic understanding. “You’re gonna make the leap aren’t you?”

“I beg your pardon.”

“I did that, a while back,” Winn continued, as if what he was saying made any sense to Lena, “Well, I crashed and burned and almost destroyed our friendship – but I’m sure that won’t happen to you! You’re much prettier than I am, for one thing, obviously, and you’ve got the money and power thing going too, and my legs are nowhere near as nice as yours and –” Winn caught Lena’s incredulous raised eyebrow and cut himself off, shouting over her shoulder, “James!”

He dragged a tall, broad-shouldered man in by the elbow. “This is James Olsen!” Winn announced as James held out a hand, looking gently amused, “He is also a friend of Kara’s.”

“Hello,” Lena actually relaxed at the sight of a fellow CEO, feeling on much firmer ground – she could negotiate business acquaintances just fine.

“Hi,” James smiled, a movie-star handsome kind of smile, and Lena felt an unexpected rush of jealousy that Kara was spending time with an attractive, charismatic executive who _wasn’t_ her.

“So,” she began crisply, “How has your tenure as CatCo’s _acting_ CEO been going? Not too difficult, I hope?” A combative note slipped into her voice, and James crossed his arms in response.

“Nope, everything’s been going pretty smoothly. What about you, how’s getting away from your psycho, imprisoned brother’s reputation going?”

“Swimmingly,” Lena bit out.

Hands fluttering nervously, Winn intervened, telling James, “Lena’s here to _see Kara_.” He added with emphasis, “to _ask her something_.”

James clearly understood whatever Winn was trying to communicate with his bobbing eyebrows, and turned to Lena with a new light in his eyes. “Well, in that case...good luck.”

Lena didn’t know how to respond, “I...”

“Even though it didn’t work out between her and me, Kara deserves to have someone special and...” he tilted his head as he looked at Lena, as if he could see something deeper, beneath her skin, “Who knows, maybe you’re the one she’s been looking for.”

This was getting altogether out of Lena’s depth. She wished suddenly that Wendy was there to dispense some advice on how to deal with two of your crush’s best friends and apparently ex-almost-boyfriends showing up and making cryptic remarks right when you’re about to ask said crush out.

 Lena hoped Wendy would suggest fleeing, because that’s what she felt like doing.

“Hey,” Winn continued with a grin, gesturing towards Lena, “If things don’t go well between you two, then at least you can join our little club – the more the merrier, right?”

James winced, and gave Winn a hard pat on the shoulder, “Maybe you should just stop talking, buddy.”

“That’s a good idea,” Winn agreed, while Lena just stared at them.

“Hey, Winn are you –” Kara’s voice floated around the corner, followed a moment later by the woman herself, who drew up short at the sight of her three best friends all huddled behind a statue, staring at her like a herd of deer caught in headlights.

“Hi!” the trio chorused, all wearing identical, slightly guilty expressions.

“Hello...everyone?” Kara looked bewildered, “Are you...having a party back here without me?”

“No!” they all insisted in suspicious unison.

“We’re just having a chat,” James explained smoothly.

“Yup! Just shooting the breeze, chewing the fat, whatever conversational metaphor you fancy,” Winn added, less smoothly.

“I just ran into your friends on my way to see you,” Lena piped up.

“So.....” Winn hooked his arm through James’ and started tugging him along, “James and I are just going to...go and be over there...” he gestured vaguely towards the wall of windows, “because that particular bit of carpet is just...in need of our feet standing on it...it, it’s a very lonely carpet....”

Mercifully interrupting Winn’s rambling, James gave a friendly smile and said, “It was nice to see you, Lena.”

“And you,” she replied, dredging up a polite nod even though the sight of Kara smiling with confusion at her was making her insides do exceedingly uncomfortable gymnastics.

“So, Lena...what brings you by?” Kara asked brightly as Winn threw a thumbs up at Lena behind her, before being bodily dragged away by James.

Lena made an unintelligible sort of noise as she discovered that her voice had apparently disappeared in the last three seconds, along with her knowledge of how to act like a normal human being, apparently.

“Are you alright?” Kara asked, hand reaching out to hover over Lena’s.

“Right as rain!” Lena enthused, cringing immediately afterwards.

Okay, she counseled herself as Kara continued to look at her with a touch of concern. This is it. This is the moment. What would Wendy do? she thought. Well, Wendy would probably do something wildly inappropriate for the workplace. Okay, scratch that – what would _I_ , Lena Luthor, leader of a successful corporation and survivor of one of the world’s most messed-up families do?

I’d do what needs to be done.

And so Lena steeled her nerves and squared her shoulders, looking Kara straight in the eyes as she asked, “Would you like to go out to dinner with me?”

Kara grinned and bounced up on her heels, “Sure!”

Lena found her lungs suddenly bereft of air. Good lord, had it really been this easy the whole time?

“When were you thinking?” Kara asked, easy smile still in place.

Oh. Oh no, Lena realized. This was the nightmare scenario: Kara thought Lena was proposing a nice, friendly, platonic night on the town. Surely Lena had had some sort of contingency in place for dealing with this possibility? But none came to mind.

“How about tonight, if you’re free?” she heard her voice saying, even as inside, she was going to Defcon One.

“Sounds great!”

“Great!” Lena echoed. She turned abruptly to make her escape, but Kara stopped her with a soft hand on her arm, asking, “Oh, and how should I dress? Is the place we’re going to casual or fancy?” Kara made a little swaying motion with her hips that probably was meant to evoke ‘fancy,’ but mostly made Lena forget how to breathe.

Reams of inappropriate answers centering on the theme of "how about nothing?" flew through Lena’s mind as she stuttered out, "How about a, er, dress?" _Stupid, stupid_ , she berated herself, “The place I'm thinking of is pretty nice...”

This was, technically speaking, a lie, as Lena had no idea where to take Kara, since she had not actually planned anything past saying the words “will you go out with me.”

“A dress it is!” Kara clapped her hands together, looking almost jubilant. For a moment, Lena’s nerves abated, because Kara was just glowing, and _she_ had done that, _she_ had put that smile on her face, so maybe everything would turn out okay in the end.

“I’ll pick you up at seven,” Lena said, bridging the gap between them to run a hand lightly down Kara’s arm.

As she turned away, she wondered if she had imagined Kara’s answering shiver to her touch.

“Oh, Lena?”

Lena glanced back around, heart jumping into her throat.

Kara’s smile was tinged with shyness as she looked up through her lashes at Lena, “I can’t wait.”

“Me neither,” Lena smiled back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Our girl did it!! So brave.   
> And, Wendy will make an appearance in the next installment with more quality advice... 
> 
> Let me know what you thought!


	3. Chapter 3

Tonight can still be salvaged, Lena plotted as she parked her car back at L-Corp. That was _certainly_ an encouraging response from Kara. To make it clear that I want something romantic between us, I just have to sweep her off her feet. Dial things up, or take things to the next level, whatever vapid cliché fits this situation...

And on the upside, if _Kara_ doesn’t think this is a date, then _I_ don’t have to think about it that way, which mean I don’t have to be nervous, right? That has some sort of internal logic to it.

On autopilot, Lena bypassed the garage elevator and instead stepped out onto the pavement, going right up to Wendy’s food cart.

Wendy was in the middle of talking to a customer, but when she caught sight of Lena she stopped mid-sentence to shout as Lena crossed the last ten feet between them, “Did you do it?!”

Before Lena could answer, the customer grumbled, “Hey, you gonna give me my coffee or what? I’m waitin’ here!”

Wendy turned back to him with ice in her eyes and said in a tone that brooked no argument, “ _Scram_.”

“I’m sorry,” Lena winced as the man huffed and stomped away, “I didn’t mean to interfere with your business.”

“Ah, he’s no loss. It’s no good for me to be interacting with an Aries like him when the moon’s in the eighth house, anyway.”

“You know astrology?” Lena asked, diverted.

“No, but I like to pretend to in order to add to my quirky persona and generally eccentric ambiance.” Wendy smiled benevolently before continuing, “But I don’t think that’s what you came here to talk about.”

“No...” Lena couldn’t hold back a grin as she admitted in a rush, “She said yes! Kara, I mean, when I asked her out! Unfortunately, I think she thinks this is a friend-date, not a date-date, but it’s a start, right?”

“Right!” Wendy agreed enthusiastically, “So, where are you taking her?”

“Well, I haven’t actually figured that part out yet,” Lena confessed, beginning to worry her bottom lip as her excitement for tonight started to morph into fear. “I told her I’d take her someplace fancy... I was thinking perhaps La Sirene. It’s the poshest place in town.”

“You don’t look sold on the idea,” Wendy commented.

“I suppose I want something that’s a little more special, something less, I don’t know, generic.”

“I know what you mean. Ordinarily, I’d recommend someplace with fire dancers, ideally, a place where the fire dancing is a _participatory_ experience. You can’t have enough fire on a first date,” Wendy informed her. “But, National City is sadly lacking in that department.”

Lena echoed Wendy’s disappointed shake of her head.

“The next best thing to avoiding flaming limbs during dinner is, of course, getting to listen to live music.”

“Yes!” Lena snapped her fingers as inspiration struck, “That’s a wonderful idea! And I know just the place – there’s this great little Italian restaurant called Vic’s that has a fantastic lounge singer. It’s elegant, but not impersonal, and I know Kara will just love the retro, midcentury aesthetic. Thank you so much, Wendy,” Lena said gratefully, already reaching for her phone to make reservations.

“Any time, honey,” Wendy grinned, twirling a nearby biscotti like a baton, “Consider me your dating muse.”

~~~~~

It was T-minus three hours to The Biggest Date of Her Life. Lena had titled the event as such in her personal calendar, and then written it on a sticky note and stuck it to her computer monitor, and even thought about writing it in the back of her hand in pen, because this really was The Biggest Date of Her Life and she could not afford to lose track of time and forget about it.

That worry was more than a little ridiculous, because she physically could not think about anything else.

Since she’d returned from CatCo, she’d been trying to get some paperwork done so she could at least pretend that she hadn’t spent the last four payable hours alternately fantasizing about Kara and constructing doomsday scenarios about their impending date. As Lena stared at the clock, trying to decide how early she could duck out of work without it seeming like corporate malfeasance, one of the doomsday possibilities she _hadn’t_ considered strolled through her door.

“Hello, Lena,” Lillian Luthor said as she breezed into the room, mild smile in place below characteristically cold eyes.

“ _Mother_?” Lena exclaimed, before she could regain her composure. As her mother surveyed the office, the judgement in her eyes clearly indicating that she found it lacking, Lena reclined in her chair and steepled her fingers. “I didn’t realize you were stopping by – I would have made sure to be somewhere else.”

“Glad to see you’ve kept your sense of humor through these trying times,” Lillian retorted evenly.

“My times _weren’t_ so trying until an unexpected guest arrived just as I was about to leave,” Lena said, standing abruptly and shutting her computer with a snap.

“Leaving? This early? Oh, Lena, I thought I taught you to be a harder worker than that.”

“If you must know,” Lena sniffed, tossing her coat over her arm, “I have a dinner...meeting.”

“Ah, right,” Lillian nodded as if she was remembering something, “Tonight’s the...Biggest Date of Your Life?”

Lena froze. With every ounce of her control, she kept her face neutral as she turned to face her mother and ask calmly, “Have you been spying on me?”

“Spying? Such a harsh word for a parent simply looking out for her only daughter.”

“It was Angeline, wasn’t it,” Lena realized, as she noticed that her secretary hadn’t even given her a warning that her mother had arrived, much less tried to waylay her, “Or have you just taken to hacking my schedule?”

Lillian’s smile had a reptilian quality to it as she replied, “My dear, what makes you think I wouldn’t do both?”

“You’re unbelievable,” Lena hissed, anger beginning to slip out of her control. “Why are you even here? Just to sabotage my night? You want to make sure that I never even find a _shred_ of happiness?”

“This.... _person_ you’re seeing tonight,” Lillian said dispassionately, “I’m not sure she’s in your best interest.”

“My best...? For God’s sake mother, she’s a _saint_. I’m lucky she even gives me the time of day.”

“There’s a great deal you don’t know about Kara Danvers,” Lillian warned as Lena began to stalk away.

Lena whipped back around to get in her mother’s face as she growled, “You _stay away_ from Kara Danvers. Or I will make sure you regret it.”

“You’ll make _me_ regret it? Lena, dear, I think you’re rather out of your depth.”

“And I think _you_ don’t know what I’m capable of.” With that, Lena turned on her heel and left, keeping her head held high until she reached the safety of the elevator. She leaned against the cool steel wall with a sigh, and tried to decide what was more disturbing: that her mother’s words had been tantamount to a threat, or that her mother had looked almost proud when Lena had threatened her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shakes fist at Lillian*  
> At least Wendy gave some good advice about first dates for us all to remember... 
> 
> Next up...The Date!!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The date begins!!!

Black or red? Lena threw aside the red dress and hung the black one up for inspection. Hair up or down? She couldn’t decide, and pulled out bobby pins and a curling iron. Should I frame my mother for murder so she can rot in prison for the rest of her life, or keep things simple and just murder her myself?

Well, that question wasn’t relevant.

For the billionth time since she’d left her mother behind in her office, Lena tried to excise all thoughts of her, and focus only on the task at hand. By the time she was ready to go and pick up Kara, Lena had successfully zipped herself into a dress that both emphasized her curves and still allowed her to breathe, pinned her hair partway back so it fell in soft curls over one shoulder, and put on a three-string diamond necklace that she hoped said ‘I’m tasteful regarding shows of wealth but I can also support you financially for the rest of your life.’ And, she’d only come up with a dozen ways to destroy her mother, and she hadn’t set any of them into motion – that had to be a win.

Come on now, she thought, giving herself a shake as she put the car into gear, leave the supervillain plotting to Lex – Kara’s expecting her friend, not a monster.   

By the time she pulled up in front of Kara’s apartment building, the seething resentment she felt towards her mother had been replaced with a heady buzz of anxiety and excitement. Just as she was debating whether to text Kara or go up to her apartment and knock, Kara stepped outside, looking radiant in a shimmering gold dress.

The sight of her was so utterly breathtaking that she was almost to the car before Lena noticed that she also looked angry enough to burn a man alive with just a glare.

Lena reached over to push the door open, greeting Kara with a cautious, “Hey there.”

“Hey...” Kara sighed, pulling her dress up around her knees to climb into the car.

With a wry smile, Lena asked, "Kara, has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful when you're angry?"

Kara’s fierce expression lifted as she let out a surprised laugh, relaxing into the car’s faux-leather seat. "I'm sorry. I’m really excited to be here, I am, it’s just that I’m still fuming about my boss being his usual awful self."

"Ah, the notorious Snapper Carr. You know, if you wanted, I could have him killed,” Lena offered lightly.

Kara looked taken aback and Lena quickly added, "I'm kidding, of course."

"Oh, I know," Kara replied slowly, "it's just that for a moment there I really wanted to take you up on it."

Lena felt cold anger start to form in the pit of her stomach as she pulled away from the curb. “What’s that pathetic excuse for a human being done this time?”

“Just the usual...name calling, telling me how terrible my writing is, how I don’t deserve a desk and I’m not a real reporter...” Kara sighed again, and Lena worked very hard to concentrate on the road, and not on her new, revised plan to frame her mother for the murder of Snapper Carr, thus taking down two birds with one stone.

“You know,” Kara continued, crossing her arms, “I thought working for Miss Grant would’ve prepared me for dealing with just about anyone, but he’s just so _mean_. Even though Cat could be harsh, and never got my name right, I knew that underneath it all, she cared about me. She _respected_ me – Snapper doesn’t see me as anything other than a, a blonde _ponytail_ that he’s forced to put up with.”

Pulling to a stop at a red light, Lena turned to face Kara with a mischievous smile and asked, “Did you ever see the movie _Regarding Henry_?”

“Uh...with Harrison Ford, right?” Kara scrunched up her brow in mild confusion, not seeing the connection. “Where he’s a ruthless lawyer who gets shot and loses his memory, and then, like, becomes a better person?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. I just feel that the message of that movie applies here.”

“And that is...?”

“Some men can really be improved by a bullet to the head.”

Kara snorted, throwing a hand over her mouth.

“Really, sometimes a solid headshot just does _wonders_ ,” Lena added in a totally serious tone.

“Oh my _god_...” Kara broke into giggles.

Lena smiled, pleased, and waited for her laughter to die down before she added on a more sincere note, “But really... if murder is a little out of your wheelhouse, you could think about getting a job elsewhere. I get the feeling your relationship with Cat Grant was important, but now that she’s gone...maybe CatCo isn’t the place for you.”

Kara tilted her head, thoughtful.

“After all,” Lena continued, “if you’re interested in pursuing serious journalism, then perhaps a traditional newspaper would be a better fit than a fashion and style magazine.”

“You’re right,” Kara said quietly. “I hadn’t ever thought seriously about leaving before, but maybe I _should_ consider it...”

“I certainly don’t mean to push,” Lena clarified, “But if you do decide to pursue new opportunities, I could make a call to _The Tribune_ , if you like. I know an editor there, and she’s smart enough to actually _appreciate_ your talents.”

“Thank you, Lena. It means a lot that you believe in me.”

Lena wanted to say: Believing in you is easy – _you_ believed in _me_ first, now that’s hard. But instead, she just said, “I always will.”

At that, Kara broke into a sunny smile, and Lena felt a rush just like she had that afternoon at the thought that _she_ was the one to put that look on Kara’s face – she could get addicted to that feeling, to that smile.

“Well, I think that’s enough doom and gloom,” Kara declared, “How about you, how was your day?”

Flashing back to her mother, Lena frowned. “Yeah, if we want to avoid doom and gloom, the recent part of my day is best forgotten...but I had a good morning. I made a new friend.”

Kara patted her shoulder, “Good for you! What’re they like?”

“Her name is Wendy,” Lena said proudly, “She sells coffee and gives excellent advice.”

“Well then, maybe I should ask her what to do about the whole Snapper situation.”

Lena grinned. “I think she might possibly suggest making use of some cinderblocks and the very deep waters of the East side docks. Or fire.”

Kara nodded serenely. “She sounds like a very wise woman.”

Lena looked at Kara, her golden curls backlit by the glowing signs outside and her perfect lips turned up in a gentle smile, and said softly, “She really is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Screw Snapper, am I right? This chapter definitely addressed a pet peeve of mine, which is Kara being a Breaking News Journalist at...what seems like a probably monthly or bi-monthly fashion magazine?? Like?? They wouldn't have the resources to cover current, local news and that's not their focus or audience anyway, is it???? (I majored in journalism and I just...have got beef.)   
> And who better than Lena to help Kara realize that she might have outgrown her place at CatCo, and give her the courage to try something new and maybe a little scary! 
> 
> As always, I'd love to hear what you all thought! <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The date continues, with Feels~
> 
> For context, I imagine Lena's wearing something like what Katie wore to the [King Arthur premiere](http://celebmafia.com/katie-mcgrath-king-arthur-legend-sword-premiere-london-05102017-768822/), and Kara's dressed in something [like this](https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53829611/flash_musical.0.jpg) from "Duet." Also, as MercyGraves caught earlier, Vic's is a reference to this [recurring holodeck program](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/10/24/1c/10241c786b7b831be9fb5f743234055e.jpg) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine :)

“So, where are we going?” Kara asked brightly, bouncing a little in her seat as she looked out the window at the city lights flashing by.

“It’s a place called Vic’s. It’s got great music, great food, and a fun atmosphere...I hope you’ll like it.”

“If you like it, I’ll like it,” Kara assured her.

“Here we are!” Lena announced as they pulled up in front of a small brick building with a red and white canopy overhanging the entrance.

Lena stepped out of the car and went around the front to help Kara out, but the valet beat her to it. Lena tossed him the keys and then in a moment of bravery, held her arm out to Kara with a smile, asking, “Shall we?”

Kara ducked her head and grinned, tucking her hand in the crook of Lena’s elbow.

As they walked arm in arm into the restaurant’s warm, softly lit interior, Lena felt on top of the world, but also a little bit like if she stumbled, she might fall into a black hole.

“Reservations for two, under Luthor,” she told the hostess, who gave a deferential nod to them and led them to a lovely table situated near enough to the stage to hear the jazz singer’s smooth melodies, but far enough to allow for good conversation.

For the first time that night, Lena took a breath and tried to really appreciate what was happening. She was out on a date with Kara Danvers. A _date_ with _Kara_. This was, despite some issues with miscommunication, a truly incredible event.

She also took a moment to appreciate how jaw-droppingly gorgeous Kara looked, tucking her hair behind her ear and smiling at Lena across the table.

On the one hand, thank god Kara was wearing a high cut dress and those long legs were now hidden safely under the table, or Lena might not be able to form whole words. On the other hand, there was consequently little to distract from how radiant Kara’s smile looked in the candlelight, and the ‘whole words’ thing still might be a problem. 

Lena had personally gone for maximum cleavage with her dress, in the hopes that it might keep Kara from noticing that her date’s brains had turned into mashed potatoes – a possibility Lena had previously thought very likely, but now, she was starting to feel settled. Calmer. Why should she be nervous? After all, whether or not Kara liked her the way Lena liked Kara, she would never be cruel, or let their friendship end over it. Lena’s heart was in the safest hands she knew.

“This place is amazing, Lena,” Kara gushed, admiring the retro décor, “It’s like stepping into an old movie! I feel like Fred Astaire will come waltzing around the corner.”

“I’m glad you like it. Though,” Lena raised an elegant finger, “I always preferred Ginger Rogers.”

Kara leaned across the table conspiratorially, “But what about Audrey Hepburn?”

Lena put a hand over her heart. “Don’t make me choose,” she said with theatrical despair.

Kara giggled, “There’s a theater in uptown that shows old movies, we should go sometime.”

“I would love to,” Lena replied, heart pounding at Kara already suggesting a second date – though of course, Lena needed to remember that Kara didn’t seem to think that _this_ was a date at all. Though would Kara really have dressed so nicely for something else...?

“Have you seen _Funny Face_?” Kara asked eagerly, “That’s my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie – my favorite romance movie, actually – ever.”

“I think the only movie of hers I’ve really seen is _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ ,” Lena admitted, “When it comes to favorite Hepburns, I actually prefer Katharine.”

“You know, I can see that,” Kara grinned. “You’re more classic. Forties, black and white, with at least three dashing men vying for your affections, but you don’t really need any of them...like in that one with Cary Grant and the guy from _It’s a Wonderful Life_.”

“Thank you, and yes – _The Philadelphia Story_ was very influential for me, watching it as a child. And of course,” Lena picked up her glass and swirled it with a twinkle in her eye, “I always have a bevy of dashing men on hand to fall to their knees and worship me, when the occasion arises.”

“Naturally,” Kara agreed solemnly, “You have to keep up appearances.”

“Exactly...” The two broke into laughter, still giggling when the waitress arrived to take their orders.

After she’d left, Kara and Lena kept chatting, keeping up an easy banter that bordered pleasantly on flirtatious all the way until their food arrived, and well into the main course.

As the conversation turned towards their past and stories of their respective times in college, Lena told Kara, “I wanted to take a gap year between finishing my bachelors and starting graduate school to go be a ski bum, but as you can imagine, my family didn’t approve.”

“Wait, a _ski bum_?” Kara laughed, looking delighted.

“Oh, yeah,” Lena nodded, leaning back in her chair, “I wanted to just live in the mountains, survive on cocoa and adrenaline. I love the slopes. The speed, the freedom – skiing is about as close as I can get to really flying.”

“I should take you flying sometime,” Kara replied, folding her hands under her chin and smiling dreamily.

“What? Do you have a private jet I don’t know about?”

“Oh! Yes, right,” Kara fumbled, pushing up her glasses and almost knocking over her water glass with her elbow, “Because people can only fly in planes, of course... No, I meant, _you_ should take _me_ flying– skiing! I meant skiing. I meant, you and I should go _skiing_ together,” Kara finally finished, blushing.

“Well, I would love to go skiing with you. Or flying,” Lena bit her lip to hide her smile, “In a plane, of course.”

Kara let out a too-high, nervous laugh, and Lena took pity on her and moved the conversation along. “My brother used to take me up in the family jet. He learned to pilot when he was 13, he was always fascinated with the sky, with space – anything and everything that wasn’t...of the Earth.

“I loved those times, when it was just him and me and the clouds. That was when he was just my brother; not the more rightful heir to the Luthor fortune, not someone I had to live up to or compete with. He was my family, and my friend.”

“You must miss him,” Kara said, eyes filled with sympathy.

“I do.” Lena let out a harsh laugh, “I know I shouldn’t, because he’s so...” Lena shook her head, not able to find the word. “But sometimes when I have a hard question about quantum physics, I still want to call him to talk about it. Or, I look at my chessboard and I think about all the times he beat me, but how every time he’d stay and explain how he’d won until I understood, and then he’d say that he looked forward to playing me again – and he meant it. He wasn’t a good person, or even always a good brother, but he _was_ still my big brother.”

Lena took a deep shuddering breath, ashamed to feel heat pricking behind her eyes. “I’m sorry, Kara,” she apologized with a catch in her voice, “I didn’t mean to get so deep into my family’s psychoses. I mean, he’s a monster, and I’m glad he’s locked up, I shouldn’t even care about him anymore...”

“No, I get it,” Kara said, and when Lena looked up to meet her gaze, she saw depths of loss there that she’d never seen before. “I actually have some experience with family members who turned out...bad. And I know that you can still love them, even when you know you shouldn’t. Even when part of you hates them. That’s just how family is, sometimes.”

Reaching across the table with shaky hands, Lena linked their fingers together. Kara seemed to welcome the touch, squeezing her hands just this side of too tight as Lena said in a rush, “Kara Danvers, you continue to astonish me.”

Kara’s thumb brushed along Lena’s as she replied, “In a good way, I hope.”

“The best way,” Lena confirmed.

Suddenly, the light and music of the restaurant outside their little bubble flooded back into Lena’s awareness, and she laughed at the contrast of the happy chatter around them with their bittersweet moment. “We really know how to have a good time, don’t we?”

“We sure do,” Kara agreed, giving Lena’s hands a final squeeze before letting them go.

As Lena felt Kara’s fingers slip away and she wished deeply that she could’ve just held onto her forever, inspiration struck.

“You know what those lovely ladies of the silver screen we were talking about earlier would probably suggest to lift our moods?” She asked, pushing her chair back.

“What?”

“That we dance our problems away.” Lena stood and held out a hand, gesturing with the other to the couples twirling across the floor below, “May I have this dance?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, family drama - dancing will make it all better.  
> And MORE drama (and hopefully some laughs) to come next chapter, when their date gets interrupted.... 
> 
> As always, comments are deeply appreciated! <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly longer update than usual, with lots happening in this chapter!  
> Feels and drama and the return of Wendy.  
> Also, some background Clark/Lex mentions, because I'm still Smallville trash.

“May I have this dance?” Lena waited for a reply with bated breath. 

Kara’s eyes went wide and her mouth formed an adorable little ‘o’ of surprise before she answered in a halting voice, “Um, I mean...yes, yes you can...” Kara stood abruptly, bumping into the table and sending it skidding a few inches. She winced, looking distressed as she added, “But I, uh, don’t really know how to dance that well...or at all...”

Lena laughed and took Kara’s hand, leading her out onto the floor. “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you. Just stay close...” Lena guided one of Kara’s hands to her shoulder and took her by the waist as  she grasped the other, “...and it’ll be fine.”

Kara didn’t look entirely convinced, gaze flicking nervously down to her feet every few seconds. “It’s just that you _really_ don’t want me stepping on your toes.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t, we’ll just take it slow...” Lena didn’t try and start any sort of real step, she just began to sway back and forth mostly in place to the rhythm of the music. Kara was stiff and hesitant for a few moments, but as they moved slowly around the edge of the floor, she relaxed into Lena’s arms.

“Is this okay?” Lena murmured, close enough to almost whisper in Kara’s ear.

“More than okay,” Kara murmured back.

With a rustle of percussion the song ended, but after a brief smattering of applause the band started up again. Just a moment before the singer joined in, Lena recognized the melody and had to stifle a laugh. Kara glanced at her, a questioning crinkle in her brow, but Lena just gestured to the stage with their linked hands and waited.

_Come fly with me,_

_Let’s fly, let’s fly away_

“Oh...” Kara blinked and then giggled, blushing and ducking her head as she remembered their earlier conversation.

Lena began to hum along quietly,  

_If you can use some exotic booze,_

_There’s a bar in far Bombay_

Kara glanced back up, as Lena sang along to the title line, “Come fly with me...” With a sudden playful grin, Lena stepped back far enough to lift their joined hands and twirl Kara around once before pulling her back in close.

Now Kara was laughing, happy smile back in place. “You know,” she said, “I think this is going to have to be our song, from now on.”

Lena’s breath caught in her throat, making her response come out rough, “I think you’re right.”

_Once I get you up there, I'll be holding you so near,_

_You may hear, angels cheer 'cause we're together_

Kara was so close, close enough for Lena to know that she smelled like heaven, and her skin was as soft as it looked, but with firm, immovable muscle underneath. Their eyes met but then slid away, and Lena was focused on Kara’s perfect mouth, pink lips slightly parted, and she felt Kara mirroring her gaze.

But before the moment ticked over into one that left their intentions unmistakable, the whole restaurant was rocked with a blast that left the windows rattling and the lampshades swinging. Everyone spun to look at the city outside, where an orange fireball could be seen rising from a column of heat and smoke only a few blocks away.

Lena had hardly registered what happened – was that a bomb? was Kara really about to kiss her just then? – when Kara turned back towards her, her expression torn between anxiety and regret.

“Lena, I...I have to...”

“You have to go,” Lena finished for her, dropping their hands and stepping back. “Of course, I understand.”

Kara’s mouth was open as if she wanted to say something else, but couldn’t quite bring herself to do so.

“A reporter’s work is never done,” Lena continued with a rueful sort of smile. Her words seemed to shake Kara loose, as she broke from her position frozen between Lena and the door, and began to move away.

“Thank you,” Kara said, hand flying up to adjust her glasses as she backed away, not taking her eyes off of Lena. “Be safe and I’ll– I’ll call you later, ok?”

“Alright. And you be safe too!”

Kara nodded firmly, before disappearing into the crowd of people leaving the restaurant to gawk at the still-rising smoke.

Lena took a moment to collect herself, shoving down the urge to break something or cry at the fact that just when everything was about to be _perfect_ , things had literally blown up in her face–

She froze on the now-empty dancefloor as she realized: who was the one person who was always involved when things went wrong in her life?

With half a dozen angry strides, Lena reached her abandoned purse, retrieving her phone and punching in a number she always dreaded calling.

“What is it, Lena, I’m rather busy,” her mother answered, sounding dissatisfied and distracted.

“Blowing up buildings downtown?” Lena asked sweetly, “Yes, I saw.”

“What in the world are you talking about?” Lillian drawled.

Ignoring her mother’s question, Lena continued, “You know, judging from the size of the explosion and where it originated, I’d say you took out the main research facility of Stagg Enterprises. And funnily enough, I’d heard that Stagg employs a lot of alien workers, under the radar.”

“Your point being..?”

“It’s a funny coincidence, a building full of undocumented aliens going up in smoke, just hours after you show up at my office unannounced. This little act of domestic terrorism wouldn’t have anything to do with you and your mad, anti-alien crusade would it?”

“ _My_ crusade? Isn’t it L-Corp that’s producing a handheld alien detection device?”

“Large-scale production of that device has been moth-balled _permanently_ ,” Lena bit out. “Although I’m still cautious about extra-terrestrials causing mayhem on Earth, I will not support anything that would bring harm and discrimination upon on innocent beings.”

“How noble. And naïve.”

“So, is that why you blew up that building? To make a point? Or did you just do it to wreck my date?”

“What an absurd accusation. And even if it were true that I had anything to do with tonight’s incident...what would that have to do with your ill-advised encounter with Miss Danvers?”

Lena waited for a moment, weighing her choices carefully before replying coldly, “We both know what is has to do with Kara.”

There were a few seconds of crackling silence over the line before Lillian said, “My dear Lena, I believe I underestimated you.”

“That would be typical.”

“Or perhaps this just means that you’re even more foolish than I thought,” Lillian snapped. “You should know after what happened with your brother that _they_ can’t be trusted.”

Lena was breathing harshly, the invocation of her brother’s descent into madness hitting a little too close to home. “Lex brought his own hell down on himself.”

“You know that’s not true. It _never_ would have happened if it weren’t for that meddling Kryptonian, and if you keep going down the path you’re on, the same thing will happen to you.”

“You say that so convincingly,” Lena snarled, “It’s almost like you care about me.”

“Now, Lena, of course I care–”

“No. You just– if some part of you _does_ actually care about me, then you’ll stay away from me, _and_ from Kara.” Lena hung up before her mother could respond.

A few people in the restaurant were sitting back down at their tables, and the wait staff was beginning to circulate again. A somewhat shaken looking waitress wordlessly handed Lena a bill, which Lena paid quickly before leaving, suddenly desperate for some fresh air.

She retrieved her car from the valet and set off aimlessly, not sure where to go, feeling like she was in a sort of limbo. She didn’t drive far before pulling to a stop, needing to walk and also knowing that she probably shouldn’t be behind the wheel with her mind as distracted as it was.

After a few minutes of pavement she arrived at a fresh green expanse of grass – the city’s central park, mostly empty at this time of night, except for a few couples holding hands and workers heading home from the various businesses surrounding the area.

Lena lowered herself slowly onto a nearby bench, the cold metal biting through the thin fabric of her dress, but she hardly noticed.

She _really_ wanted to talk to someone, but the person she most wanted to be with was off fighting fires, and she didn’t know where her other friend was when she wasn’t manning her coffee cart, or how to contact her.

“Gee, honey...” Lena turned around, incredulous, at the sound of a familiar voice, “You look like you’re in the part of a romantic comedy where the main couple breaks up because some silly plot device, and the girl cries in the rain while slightly outdated pop music plays in the background.” Wendy came around the bench to plop down next to Lena. “I guess that makes me the quirky best friend who gives her a pep talk and helps them get back together.”

“ _Wendy_? How are you...? I was _just_ thinking about –” Lena squinted fiercely at Wendy, but couldn’t picture her as a stalker, or criminal. Or worse, working for her mother – Wendy was just too...well, she was _Wendy_.

“Are you my fairy godmother?” Lena finally asked, because at this point, that seemed as sensible an explanation as any other.

“Nah, I’m just a ninja-in-training.” Wendy hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the dojo across the street, “I’m on my way home from my Aikido class.”

“Well, that explains the bow staff.” Lena tapped the long wooden staff slung over Wendy’s back.

Wendy pulled the weapon around to sit in her lap, looking down at it fondly. “It’s a _jō_ staff actually, which is a little bit shorter than the _bō_ staff – it was a gift from a lovely girl I met on a trip to Tokyo.”

Lena smiled more than a little wistfully. “She sounds like quite a girl.”

“She was. Like your Kara, I imagine...” Wendy tilted her head, knowingly, “Wasn’t that special date tonight?”

“It was,” Lena admitted, “But it was interrupted by that unscheduled fireworks display.” Lena waved bitterly towards the now-clearing smoke drifting over the rooftops.

Wendy nodded as if she understood, and Lena supposed that in her own special way, she probably did.

“You wanna talk about it?” Wendy asked, producing a tin of peanut brittle from somewhere in the folds of her coat and offering it to Lena.

“I do, but it's complicated...” Lena began, taking some of the candy and chewing it gloomily. “And some of it’s a secret, a secret that’s not mine to tell... do you understand?"

"Of course. Just like no one can know what happened with those two dozen Humboldt penguins in Jersey in '92."

Lena paused with a piece of peanut brittle halfway to her mouth. “Well, now I'm desperately curious about what happened to those penguins in ’92.”

“Oh, the penguins were fine. It was the _people_ who had problems...” Wendy tapped the side of her nose and said, "Let's just say aquatic birds and automatic weapons don’t mix.”

“You know, Wendy, before I moved to National City, I might have thought you were making some of these stories up. But after the things that I’ve seen here...” Lena shook her head.

“This city’s got a lot of character, it’s true, but weren’t you in Metropolis before? Now _that’s_ a strange town.”

Lena thought of her brother and everything he’d been involved in – the battles with Superman, the weapons made and sold to faceless organizations in order to fund his monstrous obsession, the horrible creations in his underground labs that defied the laws of nature – and said, “You don’t know the half of it.”

“Well, wanna fill me in? On the stuff you can talk about, at least?” Wendy’s request was friendly and light, with no hint of judgment, and Lena knew that if she said she didn’t want to talk about it, Wendy wouldn’t push. But maybe Wendy really was her fairy godmother, and knew that this was exactly what Lena _needed_ to talk about.

“My brother, Lex...you’ve probably heard of him?”

“Yup,” Wendy popped the “p” on the end of the word, “Seems like a troubled guy.”

“That’s an understatement,” Lena sighed, “But he wasn’t always that way. Or, he had it under control, I guess. See, he used to have this friend, kind of like how I have Kara, except that I know Lex liked this guy as more than a friend...so, actually, a _lot_ like me and Kara. And this friend...he lied to Lex all the time, and Lex knew it. It was part of what drove him crazy, that this person he cared about so much couldn’t just be _honest_ with him.” Lena had to stop and take a breath, letting her head fall into her hands.

Wendy put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and asked quietly, “Does she lie to you too? Kara?”

“It’s...it’s _complicated_ ,” Lena repeated, dragging her fingers down her face in frustration. “Just like with my brother. Because the thing is, Lex never told Cl– this guy, how he really felt. So, what happened was Lex’s fault too – honesty is a two-way street. But Lex could never forgive him for all the lying, even though someone like Lex should have known that sometimes, there really are good reasons for keeping things from the ones you love.”

“Okay, let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Wendy began, “You saw what happened with your brother, and how he couldn’t handle someone keeping a secret from him, and you don’t want to make the same mistakes he did. Right?”

“Right.”

“So, now, are you trying to make peace with not knowing Kara’s secret?”

“That’s the thing,” Lena admitted, miserable, “I already _know_ her secret. I’ve known from the beginning! Because I was the only one with access to Lex’s files and he knew _everything_ about –” Lena snapped her mouth shut, knowing she’d probably already said too much.

But Wendy just nodded, saying, “And you don’t know how to deal with knowing something you _shouldn’t_ know.”

“Exactly! It’s all just such a tangled mess...” Lena tilted her head up, holding back tears under the guise of looking at the stars. “I had to watch my brother turn love into hate, and I’m _so_ afraid that the same thing will happen to me.”

“Oh, honey,” Wendy wrapped her arm around Lena, pulling her in tight against her side, “It won’t.”

“How can you know that?”

“Because of who you are. Because you care _so much_ about other people. Because you’re willing to put your ego aside in favor of patience; to wait and see what happens rather than try and force the world to do what you want.”

“So, you don’t think I’ll become my brother?” Lena asked, voice muffled against Wendy’s shoulder.

“I know you won’t. After all, look what you’re doing now – talking to someone, getting help, and most importantly...” Wendy gently nudged Lena up so she could look in her eyes, “You’re trying to be honest with the person you care about, so that she knows that she can be honest with _you_.”

“I _am_ trying,” Lena echoed. “But I don’t know if it’s enough.”

“If you two are meant to be, it’ll be enough. And frankly, I think that you two are supposed to be a romance for the ages.”

Lena’s smile as she replied was a little damp, but genuine, “Well, if _you_ think so, then it’s definitely going to come true.”

“Well, not to brag, but they did call me ‘Wendy the All-Knowing’ back in the Big House.”

“The– what? Did you _do time_?” Lena couldn’t see Wendy going to jail, but she could, oddly enough, see her _in_ jail, running a benevolent kingdom in the cell block.

“No, that’s just what the locals called the run-down old mansion a couple of buddies and I used to sell gourmet cheese and aura cleansing herb mixes out of back in the eighties.”

“Someday you should sit down and write your autobiography,” Lena told her seriously, “You’d make a mint.”

“I don’t think the world’s ready for that,” Wendy replied with a wink. “But I’m happy to pass my stories on to someone like you.”

As they shared a smile, there was a buzz that startled Lena as her phone began to ring in her purse. She fumbled for the latch, pulling it out and feeling her pulse begin to race when she saw Kara’s name on the screen.

Next to her, Wendy stood with a creak of limbs and a rustle of fabric. She reached down and patted Lena’s back, giving her one last piece of advice for the night: “Be honest. Be brave. Be bold.”

As Wendy left with one last reassuring smile, Lena centered herself as best she could, and answered the phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got any thoughts/feelings/reactions?  
> Let me know in a comment! <3


	7. Chapter 7

“Hello?” Lena answered the phone, and was grateful to find that her voice didn’t shake.

“Hi, Lena,” Kara sounded contrite, though it was a little difficult to tell over a low whooshing noise in the background. “I’m really sorry for ducking out on you.”

“It’s fine,” Lena assured her, truthfully, “I didn’t take it personally.”

“Still, I’d like to make it up to you...did you already head home?”

“No, I’m just at central park. Enjoying the fresh air.”

“Mind if I join you?” Kara asked.

“Of course not, I’d love to see you.”

“Good.”

Lena jumped in her seat at Kara’s voice coming from behind her rather than the phone. Looking over her shoulder, she spotted Kara peering at her from a few feet away.

“How did you –” Lena started to ask before cutting herself off, deciding that it didn’t really matter. “I’m, uh, I’m really glad you’re here,” she said instead, patting the bench beside her to encourage Kara to sit down.

Kara did, carefully smoothing down the same golden dress she’d been wearing before. “And I’m glad I could talk to you. I’m just...I really am so sorry for ruining our date.”

Lena waved a hand to dismiss the thought. "You didn't ruin anything– wait.” Lena blinked, freezing. “You...you _knew_ this was a date?"

“Um, yes?” Kara echoed her questioning tone. “Was I...not supposed to?”

“ _No_ , I mean, yes, I mean.... I just thought that _you_ thought that this was just...friends hanging out.”

“Just friends hanging out?” Kara repeated, tilting her head, “Going to fancy restaurants and slow dancing?”

“Uh...” was the only response Lena could seem to muster up in the face of Kara smiling a little shyly as she scooted closer. “I guess I thought that you didn’t think it was a date because you didn’t, I don’t know....” Lena laughed a self-deprecating laugh, “Because you weren’t freaking out about it like me.”

“You thought I _wasn’t_ freaking out?” Kara asked incredulously, before fist-pumping the air. “Yes! Oh my _god_ , Lena, I’ve been having an internal meltdown since you asked me, I was just trying so hard to act cool about it, since you were.”

“ _Me_?” Lena splayed a hand across her chest as if to confirm she and Kara were talking about the same person, “Acting cool? I thought I was going to go into cardiac arrest!”

“Same! I was losing my mind getting ready for tonight, I was so nervous, I put on, like, triple strength deodorant.”

Kara looked suddenly embarrassed at that admission, but Lena grabbed her hand and gripped it tight, responding seriously, “I wanted to have my sweat glands surgically sealed.”

They both exploded into slightly hysterical giggles, startling some nearby pigeons.

“Well, I’m glad we got that all figured out,” Kara sighed happily, leaning into Lena’s shoulder.

“Me too.” Lena let her head fall to rest on Kara’s, and the two sat in a warm, comfortable silence for a minute, with the muted rumble of traffic and the rustle of wildlife around them.

Glancing down, Lena spotted a smear of soot on Kara’s knee, and she was reminded of what had pulled them apart that night. She thought about brushing the soot away, but then re-thought it since it might look like she was trying to make a move, putting a hand on her leg like that. Then she thought about it with renewed interest, since, with the date-status of their night clarified, making a move might not be a bad idea.

But in the end, Lena realized that before she did anything, she needed to clear the air between them, at least on her side – what Kara did was up to her.

“So...” Lena pulled away from Kara to look her in the eyes, missing the feel of her skin instantly, “did any of Stagg Enterprises survive the blast?”

Kara’s face darkened, her mouth pressing into a thin line. “Not really. Most of the basement was incinerated, and the rest of the building went down minutes afterwards. We were lucky to be able to get as many people out as we did – wait, how did you know it was Stagg that got hit? That building is unmarked, not a lot of people knew that they did their R&D there...”

“Not a lot of people knew that there were dozens of undocumented aliens working there, either,” Lena replied, watching Kara’s reaction carefully, “But as CEO of L-Corp I’m privy to certain information...and as a Luthor, I know things that I sometimes wish I didn’t.”

“What kind of things?” Kara asked quietly, and Lena’s heart ached at how cool and guarded Kara’s expression had turned.

“I think...” Lena’s voice almost left her, but she pressed on, “I think my mother might have been behind the attack tonight. I’ve suspected for some time that she’s involved with this horrible, anti-alien, terrorist organization. I don’t know what it’s called...”

“Cadmus,” Kara answered automatically before looking away, hand flying up to adjust her glasses in what Lena now recognized as a tell of Kara’s discomfort with bending the truth. “I’ve gone up against– er, I’ve heard about them before. From Supergirl.”

“Right, well...I don’t have any proof that it was my mother, but I know in my gut that she had a hand in this. I don’t know what I can do to try and stop her, except let Supergirl know that she’s involved. Maybe it will be helpful to put a face to this Cadmus group.”

“Thank you, Lena. I’ll– I’ll make sure that Supergirl gets this information.”

“Thank you.”

The silence between them stretched, not at all comfortable this time, and Lena finally broke it, needing to say something to make Kara understand, but not sure she had the words to do it. “Kara, I just...I just want you to know that I would _never_ be a part of something like that. I’d never hurt innocent people, no matter their species. I’m not my mother, or my brother – I can be honest. I can be good.”

Kara’s mouth fell open slightly, her expression akin to shock, but not quite – Lena couldn’t figure out what she was feeling until Kara flung herself forward and wrapped Lena in a bone-crushing hug.

“Oh, Lena, I know you wouldn’t do anything like that. I _know_ that you’re good. I’m so sorry if you thought...” Kara’s voice choked up and she clutched Lena closer, and Lena clung to her as tightly as she could, not caring that breathing was getting a little difficult. Kara released her just enough that their eyes could meet, so close that their noses almost touched. “I trust you, Lena Luthor. With my _life_.”

“And I trust you,” Lena whispered. Her voice grew in strength as she continued, “And I’ll protect you – from my mother, from Cadmus, from anything and everything that I can. I don’t want you to _ever_ suffer, but especially not because you were kind enough to give me a chance, and be my friend.”

Kara’s smile was shaky, and her hands trembled finely as they reached up to cup Lena’s face, her voice low as she said, “Thank you, Lena. That means so much to me. Though...” Kara’s smiled turned playful as she added, “I can take care of myself, too.”

“I know,” Lena agreed fervently, “and it’s very hot.”

Kara burst into surprised giggles, her hands slipping down to Lena’s shoulders. “You know, I don’t think anyone’s ever called me hot before,” she said, idly.

“Well, either you’ve been surrounded by idiots your whole life or you’re just so incredibly hot that you rendered everyone around you speechless,” Lena declared.

“Definitely the second one,” Kara nodded, pinching her lips together to keep from laughing.

“Definitely,” Lena concurred.

A church bell began to ring from a few streets away, each note resounding around the park.

Kara counted each beat, seeming surprised when they kept going. “It’s nearly eleven – how did it get so late?”

“Are you going to turn into a pumpkin, Cinderella?” Lena teased. “Or do you just have to go file your story?”

“My story?” Kara blinked.

“Yeah, on the smoking hole where Stagg Enterprises used to be...”

“Right, right...” Kara nodded, “My story, because I’m a reporter, and that’s why I left...” Kara sounded suspiciously as if she was reminding herself of this fact, but Lena didn’t push the issue, chanting a mantra in her head – _don’t be like Lex, she’ll tell you when she’s ready,  don’t be like Lex, she’ll tell you when she’s ready...._

Kara tucked a loose strand of hair back behind her ear and looked nervously away from Lena as she said, “I guess...maybe it’s time to call it a night?”

Lena’s heart sank. “Of course. I’m sure you’re tired after your adventures.”

“Yeah...” Kara didn’t look at all like someone who’d been on an adventure. She just looked sad.

“Well, I hope I’ll see you again soon?” Lena asked, tentatively. “Maybe I’ll even be lucky enough to get a second date?”

Kara smiled, still looking slightly pained, “You _absolutely_ get a second date. And I’ll try not to leave in the middle of this one.”

Lena reached out to run a gentle hand down Kara’s arm, locking eyes with her and trying to communicate a deeper meaning as she said, “But it’s alright if you do. I understand.”

When Kara just looked at her with that same, almost heartbroken stare, Lena couldn’t take it. She took a step back and nodded stiffly. “Goodbye, then. I’ll see you soon.”

She’d barely turned to leave when Kara called out, “Wait!” Lena spun back around with badly disguised eagerness.

“Lena, I’m...I’m tired of lying to you. I won’t do it anymore.” Kara held out her hand, expression determined. “Come with me.”

Without a second’s hesitation, Lena took Kara’s hand and followed her towards a stand of trees in the center of the darkened park.

Kara pulled her gently into the shadow of a giant oak’s branches, carefully looking around the empty park before wrapping her arms around Lena’s waist.

Lena’s heart was ready to beat out of her chest, and she’d half-convinced herself that Kara was actually going to kiss her this time, when she said something Lena didn’t expect: “Hold on.”

Lena didn’t have time to do anything other than quirk a surprised eyebrow at Kara before they were rocketing suddenly upwards, leaves flying by in a dizzying whoosh before they were surrounded by free, open air, with the park rapidly shrinking into a green patch among the grays and browns of National City. Lena clutched at Kara, the only solid thing in a universe that was suddenly composed of little toy cars and cotton candy clouds. She’d have thought she was hallucinating, but the cold bite of the wind this high up, the underbelly of an airplane gliding by above them, and most of all, Kara’s strong arms around her, couldn’t be an illusion.

“We’re...we’re flying,” Lena pointed out, breathless and torn between being transfixed by the tiny, glimmering city lights below, and Kara’s perfect face just inches away.

Kara nodded kindly in agreement with that rather obvious fact. Then, with her lips turned up into a broad, slightly flustered smile, Kara finally said without any preamble:

“So...I’m Supergirl.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kara: should I just tell her, or should I be Dramatic about this?  
> Kara:...  
> Kara: Dramatic, absolutely.
> 
> Let me know your thoughts!! <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're nearing the end, my friends...
> 
> If you're itching for more fun silliness, make sure and check out ysubassoon and I's [comment thread](http://archiveofourown.org/comments/109438482) back in Chapter 1 about Lena taking her learn-to-juggle backup plan very seriously... ;D

“I’m Supergirl,” Kara repeated when Lena just stared at her.

“Yeah, I...I picked up on that,” Lena finally said, faintly.

Kara huffed an embarrassed sort of laugh. “Sorry...on second thought, this was a kind of, um, abrupt way to tell you...”

“Well, they always say it’s better to show than to tell, and you definitely _showed_ me...” Lena glanced down at the ground and clutched Kara’s shoulders a little tighter.

Lena wasn’t afraid of heights but she _was_ a rational human being, and she was hovering hundreds of feet off the ground via sun-powered alien flight ability, so she was just a little nervous. Like, maybe 4% nervous. Okay, 5%.

“I’m _so_ sorry I haven’t been honest with you,” Kara continued, “I never wanted to lie, but there’s this whole secret identity to protect the ones I love thing and –”

“Oh, Kara,” Lena waved a hand for a moment before realizing what she was doing and grabbing back ahold of Kara. “It’s alright, you don’t have to explain. Especially given my family’s... _situation_ , it’s totally understandable for you to have been cautious.”

“Lena, I know that our families have had their differences –” Lena couldn’t help but chuckle at that understatement, “– but after our first meeting I knew you weren’t like them. And I always did my best to never judge you just for being a Luthor.”

Lena smiled, and wrapped her hands more comfortably around the back of Kara’s neck. “I know. You’ve always been fair with me, and as honest as was possible given the circumstances. And in the interest of honesty you should know...” Lena winced slightly in anticipation before she admitted in a rush, “I already knew that you were Supergirl.”

“ _What_?” Kara spluttered, and Lena was momentarily concerned that Kara would drop her just out of surprise. “How did you– how long have you– _how_?”

“I’ve known since the day you strolled into my office with Clark Kent. You see, after my brother went to prison, I got access to some of his secret files. Some of it was scientific genius, and a lot more of it wasn’t science at all, and then there were _petabytes_ of data on everything and anything related to Superman. As a rule, I tried to avoid Lex’s Superman obsession but...I knew who Clark was. So when he showed up with this gorgeous blonde woman in tow, it wasn’t hard to put together the pieces. And frankly, darling,” Lena sighed, reaching up to tap the side of Kara’s glasses meaningfully, “subtlety is not one of your superpowers.”

Kara’s mouth opened and shut like a fish a few times, and Lena wondered with a brief pang of fear if she’d just pissed off a super-being while said super-being was the only thing between her and a messy death on the ground far, far below.

“I would understand if you were angry...” Lena began cautiously, but Kara cut her off by breaking into a smile.

“Oh, I’m not mad...” Kara grinned, “I was just thinking about how much I like you calling me ‘darling.’”

“Oh!” Lena broke into relieved giggles and hid her face in Kara’s shoulder. Kara’s answering laughter echoed through the expanse of night air around them, and Lena burrowed a little into Kara’s neck, just drinking in the moment in all its magic.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lena spotted a familiar glint of metal on the top of a skyscraper. She pulled back to point out the L-Corp sign to Kara, but before she could say anything, Kara was leaning in and suddenly they were kissing. This was a kiss, definitely, and Lena _was not prepared_. Kara reared back when she realized Lena wasn’t responding, just standing there, frozen in shock.

“Oh...no...” Kara whispered, “Were you...were you _not_ about to kiss me?”

“I... wasn't,” Lena admitted, quickly adding, “But only because I hadn't realized that was an option!”

“Oh, it definitely is,” Kara told her seriously.

“Oh,” Lena replied, remaining frozen for another minute. Finally, she seemed to realize what she was doing and ducked her head, saying, “I'm very sorry, but it seems quite likely that I’m going to spend a great deal of our relationship being _painfully_ awkward.”

Kara gently raised Lena’s face back up with a soft finger under her chin. “That's good news, because it's completely adorable.”

“Thank god,” Lena breathed. “In that case...do you think we could try that kiss again?”

“Yes,” Kara murmured, before leaning in, met this time by Lena’s eager lips.

Lena melted into the embrace, savoring the press of their bodies mid-air, with the wind tugging at their dresses and seeming to gently coax them closer together, like a matchmaking force of nature. She tenderly tilted Kara’s face to the side, adjusting the angle so their mouths could move in perfect sync, her other hand sliding up into Kara’s long curls, sighing when she found that Kara’s hair really was as deliciously soft as it looked.

Kara’s kiss wasn’t like any other, the embodiment of velvet over iron. Lena felt sure that she now knew exactly what sunshine tasted like, and it was utterly intoxicating. If Lena hadn’t already known she was totally gone on this girl from another planet before, she did now.

Kara pulled away, slowly breaking the kiss but only moving away enough for them to catch their breath. Although Lena immediately mourned the loss of her touch, she was also grateful that Kara, at least, had remembered their need for air, because Lena certainly hadn’t.

“So that was...okay?” Kara whispered, a touch of nerves in her voice.

Lena huffed a laugh, and whispered back, “If I say it was ‘super,’ will you drop me?”

Kara laughed, “No! But...maybe I should put you back on the ground. You look like you might be getting a little dizzy.”

“I’m sure that’s just because of your kiss, but...I wouldn’t mind bringing things to a more terrestrial level. I’ve been worrying this whole time that I’m going to lose a shoe...” Lena daintily pointed one of her high heels and Kara laughed, beginning to let them sink slowly downward.

As they descended, Lena glanced around at the clouds floating gently by and the moon glowing sedately down on them. “As first kisses go...I don’t think anyone could beat this setting.”

Kara nodded, biting her lip before adding, “But I think it was the company that really made it special.”

Lena didn’t know how to deal with the rush of emotion those simple words and Kara’s shy smile made her feel, so she just leaned forward to capture Kara’s mouth in another kiss, before murmuring against her lips, “I couldn’t agree more.”

With a slight gasp, Lena realized that they’d touched down on the ground without her even noticing. “Nice landing,” she noted, reluctant to move away now that it was no longer necessary to be wrapped around Kara like a koala with abandonment issues.

“I’ve gotten better, I used to be a little rocky.”

“Well, ten out of ten from this passenger. Would fly Danvers Air again.”

They shared a laugh before Lena continued, “On the note of travel – can I offer you a ride home? I know you could just fly but...”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Kara replied, but her face fell like she was disappointed.

“Or...I mean...” Lena squinted at Kara, trying not to misread the situation, “Our night doesn’t have to be over. I think we’ve still got a lot we could talk about...” Kara nodded eagerly, so Lena continued with more confidence, “And we never did make it to dessert back at the restaurant...and I’ve got five different kinds of Ben & Jerry’s in my freezer, because I’m filthy rich and also deeply indecisive when it comes to ice cream purchasing.”

“Yes!” Kara bounced up and down with excitement, “Oh my god, yes.”

“Wonderful. Let’s go curl up on my couch and eat ice cream and talk until dawn.”

“Well...” Kara drawled as they began to head for the car, their arms around each other’s waists, “I wouldn’t mind if we did a little more than just talk...”

“Kara Danvers!” Lena said with mock astonishment, “I am _scandalized_.”

Kara shot her an impish grin, and Lena jumped when she felt Kara’s hand slip down her back to gently pat her backside.

“You–!” Lena gasped, “You _minx_.”

Kara giggled and swooped into kiss Lena’s cheek. “That’s me. Am I a saucy minx, though?”

“The sauciest,” Lena confirmed.

“That’s _your_ fault,” Kara said.

Lena put a hand on her heart and pulled an innocent face.

“I can’t help it around you,” Kara explained, “You just make me...” Kara paused, flinging her arm dramatically outwards, “wild!”

For that, Lena had to press Kara up against the body of her car and kiss her thoroughly. Breaking off the kiss just when it was reaching the edge of public indecency, Lena whispered in Kara’s ear, “Get in the car, wild girl.”

Kara giggled and complied, and Lena dashed round to the driver’s side – she really needed to be with Kara in a place that wasn’t a public park or halfway to the stratosphere.

As Lena slid behind the wheel and slammed her door shut, Kara snaked her hand over the gearshift to tangle her fingers with Lena’s. “Seriously, Lena,” she said, her teasing ebullience contained for the moment, “Tonight has been....amazing. Everything about it, from a wonderful dinner, to romantic dancing, even to the whole sharing-secrets thing. It’s been one of the best nights of my life, and I want to make sure you know that.”

Lena squeezed her hand once before letting go to reach up and smooth an errant curl back behind Kara’s ear, “I know. It’s been one of the best nights of my life too.” Then, Lena tweaked Kara’s nose, eliciting a giggle as she leaned back, saying with a grin, “And the night’s not over yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *waves goodbye* Have a good night, gals! 
> 
> So....this was the second to last chapter. There's going to be one more, a slight jump-into-the-future epilogue, probably from Kara's POV, and guest-starring our favorite, Wendy! And then...this will be over D: 
> 
> Let me know what you thought! <3


	9. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been an amazing ride writing this fic with all of your guys’ fantastic support, I truly could not have done this without you! I hope you enjoy this final chapter, with lots of Wendy at her best, and a glimpse into Kara’s POV <3

“You sure you can’t just, you know, _make_ them give me the job?” Kara asked, only half-joking as she and Lena walked down the street near L-Corp, a little over an hour before Kara was due to meet the _Tribune_ ’s news editor.

“Well, I _could_ ,” Lena replied breezily, twining her and Kara’s fingers together, “But I know I won’t have to. You’ll knock their socks off Kara – the stories you’ve written, particularly on the alien fight ring and refugee crises...You’ve got a talent for writing the most important beat in National City.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

“Aw...” Kara leaned in to peck Lena on the cheek. She pulled back with a quickly muffled gasp as she spotted a coffee cart out of the corner of her eye.

“Is that...?” she whispered in Lena’s ear, craning her neck to catch a glimpse of the woman behind the counter.

“It is indeed,” Lena declared, marching forward with a wave.

Wendy waved back as Kara said in an undertone, “For some reason, she doesn’t look like I’d pictured...”

Kara realized that in her mind, Wendy hadn’t had a solid physical form – from the stories she’d heard, it had seemed like she must be at least a _little bit_ magical, and so it was a bit of a shock that the woman in front of her wasn’t glowing with celestial light, or hiding dragon wings beneath her denim jacket.

In fact, she was a relatively ordinary looking woman: short, round, middle-aged, with curly reddish-brown hair that bobbed above her shoulders. But when Kara looked closer – at the sparkle in her eyes, at the playful curl of her lip – Kara thought that maybe she’d been right to begin with, and Wendy did have at least a dash of magic in her.

“Ah, as the prophecy foretold!” Wendy called as they came to a stop in front of her stall, gesturing grandly to Kara, “We finally meet!”

“Prophecy?” Kara asked, tilting her head to the side curiously.

With much care and reverence, Wendy held out a small white rectangle of paper that Kara recognized as a being from a fortune cookie. It read: “If there was no water in the ocean, would it still be the ocean?”

“Um...” Kara chewed her bottom lip, wondering if she was missing something.

Wendy looked down at the fortune and laughed, “Whoops! Wrong one...” she began to rustle through the drawers in her cart, “That didn’t make much sense, did it?”

“No...” Kara laughed, relieved as Wendy came back up with a different paper fortune, showing it to her. Kara squinted at it, and then squinted at it harder.

“Uh...I think this is in Chinese?” Kara pointed out.

“Yup!” Wendy agreed.

“Oh, so you know Chinese?”

“Nope!” Wendy replied cheerily, taking one more look at the fortune before tucking it away again.

“Okay,” was Kara’s faint response. She felt a little bit like she had when she’d first arrived on Earth, and people kept saying nonsensical things to her like “stop staring at the pigeons, Kara, they’re just pigeons” and “put down the couch, Kara, normal teenagers can’t lift _the whole thing_ when they drop a pen under it.”

“Now, Kara,” Wendy continued, businesslike, “I really only have _one_ question for you...”

Kara stood up straight, hands clasped nervously in front of her as she waited.

Wendy held out two tiny cupcakes and asked, deadly serious, “Chocolate or vanilla?”

“Ah!” Kara froze, fingers twitching and eyes ping-ponging back and forth between the cupcakes, wracked with indecision. “I...I...”

Wendy broke into a wide smile and handed them both to Kara. “Good choice.”

Kara took them graciously, stuttering, “B-But I didn’t...?”

“Exactly,” Wendy nodded wisely.

Kara stared at Wendy for another moment before breaking into a matching smile. Somehow, the universe had aligned and for this one moment, Wendy was making perfect sense to her. Not on a linguistic level, but on a spiritual one. As she munched on the chocolate cupcake, Kara wondered if this was what achieving true enlightenment felt like.

“So, what are two lovely ladies like yourselves up to this afternoon?” Wendy asked, “Starting up a hot air balloon taxi service? Or perhaps you’re off to kidnap the local alderman and replace him with a monkey piñata wrapped in a trench coat? It’s the perfect way to celebrate Impersonate Authority Day.”

“Is that a real holiday?” Kara asked with interest.

“It sure is, and a fine one. I’ve been celebrating it since I was a wee lass, distracting my social studies teacher with a well-placed strudel and then proceeding to teach my classmates the real truth about the War of 1812.”

“What is the real truth about the War of 1812?”

“Well, the fact that we think it took place in 1812 is the first thing to set straight. And then, of course, no one talks about the carnage between the greys and the reds.”

“The grey and red...soldiers?”

“No, _squirrels_.”

Kara turned to catch Lena’s reaction, and found her girlfriend just shaking her head with a wondering look. “Wendy,” she said, “I take back what I said before about you needing to write an autobiography. You need to make a multi-season Netflix documentary series depicting your life in stringent detail.”

Wendy nodded slowly, “Promise you’ll cast Clark Gable in the role of me, and you’ve got a deal.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s dead,” Kara pointed out.

“For about fifty years,” Lena confirmed.

“Well then, Cary Grant will do in a pinch,” Wendy acquiesced.

“Also dead, but only for about thirty years, so maybe we can work with it.”

“We should talk more about it over dinner!” Kara piped up as the idea occurred to her, “The three of us should go out some time and you can tell us more of your life story.”

“That would be lovely!” Wendy agreed with an excited clap of her hands, “The Tale of the Eiffel Tower, Twenty Cats and Me goes best over drinks and appetizers.”

At the mention of cats, Kara had a thought that was somewhere between thrilling and terrifying: “Oh my god...Wendy....you should meet my old boss, Cat Grant.”

“Do you think the universe will be able to handle it?” Lena asked Kara, sounding as if she was honestly concerned that the balance of the cosmos might be upset by their meeting.

“I’m not sure, but I think it would be worth the risk,” Kara concluded solemnly.

“Cat Grant...” Wendy mused, “She’s that thin blonde magazine woman, right?”

“Yes!”

“I actually met her once. I lent her a bobby pin backstage at a Queen reunion concert in Russia a few years back. She had her eyes on the drummer, and I’d crashed the party to convey some urgent news to Brian May about some asteroids I’d seen entering the Earth’s atmosphere – turned out, I really just needed to clean my telescope lens, but we had a couple of beers and traded guitar tips, so it was a good night in the end.”

“You were in Russia? No, wait, why would you want to talk to a guitarist about asteroids?” Lena asked, still processing the story.

“Oh, because he has a PhD in astrophysics!” Kara answered, delighted that she understood at least that much. “And he’s part of an asteroid awareness campaign. I learned that when I proofed an article about rock stars and education for Cat a while back.”  

However, thinking about proofreading an article for Cat suddenly brought on a deluge of guilt over covertly attempting to abandon her post at CatCo, and fear at going to her first job interview in years.

Lena spotted the change in her demeanor almost immediately, and concluded, “Hey, now, Kara, you’re _thinking_ again, stop that.”

“I know...” Kara said morosely, hanging her head.

“Kara’s got a big job interview in an hour,” Lena explained, turning to Wendy as she rubbed Kara’s shoulder comfortingly, “And she’s a little nervous.”

“That’s perfectly natural,” Wendy told Kara soothingly. “But there’s no need to worry, after all, even if you bomb it, the option of marrying rich is still on the table!” Wendy hooked her thumb in Lena’s direction and winked.

“That is actually really comforting,” Kara grinned, wrapping her arm around Lena’s waist. Her smile fell a little as she added, “It’s just...if I don’t get this job and I have to stay with Snapper...”

“Then I really will have to have him killed for the good of all,” Lena concluded.

“Well, maybe not _killed_...” Kara said, resting her head on Lena’s shoulder.

“No, but I could...” Lena paused to think of something suitably nasty and non-fatal, “I could break into his place and nail a dead fish to his floorboards.”

Kara’s head popped up, looking askance at Lena, while Wendy said, “Lena, I like your style.”

She shot finger guns at Lena before turning to Kara and adding, “Also, if this ‘Snapper’ – if that’s even his real name – keeps messing with you, let me know. I’ve got connections. Or, I could just handle it myself, the old fashioned way – go Maximum Wendy on him.”

Kara was genuinely touched.  “That’s very sweet, but I hope to be gone before that’s necessary.”

“Though,” Lena chimed in, “for future reference, I think I would like to see you go Maximum Wendy on someone.”

“’Tis a thing to behold,” Wendy admitted modestly.

Kara’s smile froze as she heard sirens begin to echo from a few blocks away. With a mild shot of panic, Kara turned to Lena and said, “Well! I think it’s probably time for me to go and...do that....that thing...”

Clearly picking up on Kara’s ulterior meaning, Lena finished smoothly, “Yes, we’d better be off to your _interview_ if you don’t want to be late. You go on ahead, I’ll just say goodbye to Wendy and catch up to you.”

“Thank you,” Kara bounced forward to kiss Lena’s cheek. “Bye, Wendy! Hope to see you again soon!”

“You too, honey!” Wendy replied with a friendly salute.

As Kara whipped around the corner and donned her costume, shooting into the air, she just heard Wendy say, “That’s a hell of a gal you’ve got there, Lena.”

Kara grinned to herself as she soared into the clouds – a compliment from a woman like that was something to be proud of, and she’d gotten it without any superpowers.

She touched back down around the block from where Lena was only a few minutes later, whipping back into her street clothes and pushing her glasses up her nose.

“Hey!” she called, jogging into place next to her girlfriend.

“That was quick,” Lena noted.

“It was just a little fire, nothing major. The firefighters had it under control. I saved a fish tank, though,” Kara said proudly, thinking of that little girl’s face when Kara had set down her bright red betta in front of her, safe and sound.

“That’s my girl,” Lena replied, kissing Kara’s cheek and nuzzling her neck for a moment before pulling away and taking her hand.

At that moment, the sun came out from behind a cloud and reflected perfectly off the glass of the building behind Lena, haloing her with a golden light.

Kara could only stare, looking deep into Lena’s green-blue seascape eyes, framed by raven hair and wine-red lips like some sort of queen of old. She felt an intense gratitude that Rao and whatever other forces were at work in the universe saw fit to make sure that she was on this planet at the same time and place as Lena was, so that they could make homes of each other’s hearts.

“What are you thinking?” Lena asked, catching her intense gaze.

“I’m thinking....some really cheesy things,” Kara admitted with a self-conscious laugh.

“Good, quality cheesy things I’m sure. Like, a nice creamy aged gruyère kind of cheesy?”

Kara collapsed into giggles, melting into Lena’s side. “Yes, exactly. _High brow_ cheesy.”

“Mmm, I love it,” Lena murmured into Kara’s ear, pushing her hair gently out of her face.

“I love _you_ ,” Kara replied breathlessly, the words slipping easily from her lips before she could process their significance. “Oh my god!” she squeaked, shooting upright, “I mean....we’ve only been together for a little while, so I mean that in, like, a totally chill way. In a not creepy or obsessed way, like a...a lowercase ‘L’ way not, uh...uh...”

“Kara, deep breaths,” Lena counseled, though she sounded a little breathless herself. “It’s alright. I know that you’re prone to showing your affection freely and it doesn’t have to...have to mean what it seems to.”

“But...” Kara’s heart pounded, but she couldn’t let Lena think that was the truth, “but I _do_ mean it. It wasn’t just a slip of the tongue or something. I mean, I didn’t intend to finally tell you randomly on the sidewalk outside of a, a Buffalo Wild Wings,” Kara gestured vaguely to the restaurant they’d came to a stop in front of, “but I’m not taking it back.”

“Oh,” Lena blinked. “Well then...you should know that...”

Kara thought she’d been nervous thinking of her job interview, but that was nothing to how she felt now, waiting for Lena to finish that sentence.

“You should know, Kara,” Lena finally said, reaching out to take both of her hands, “That I feel the same way. The same totally chill, not creepy or obsessed way. Even if...even if I’m not as good at expressing it as you are.”

“C-cool,” Kara stuttered in response. Then, the two simultaneously tugged each other into an embrace, kissing fiercely and paying no attention to their currently very public situation.

“Er...” Kara and Lena broke reluctantly apart at the sound of someone clearing their throat, following by the clang of the Buffalo Wild Wings’ doors swinging shut.

“Pardon me...” An older man in a football jersey clutching a bag of chicken to his chest nodded politely as he scooted around them.

“This was...perhaps not the best venue for this conversation,” Lena acknowledged as she resituated her grip on Kara to something more family-friendly, tugging her gently until they were walking down the street again.

“No, but I’m still glad it happened.”

“Me too.”

Taking a deep breath, Kara let the other thoughts that had been following close behind those first three big words out in a rush, “Lena, before you, I thought that I couldn’t have it all – the cape, the job, the significant other...I didn’t think I could juggle everything. But now I get that I was thinking about it all wrong,” Kara smiled broadly, hoping to convey even a fraction of how happy she felt with Lena in her life. “Having someone special isn’t supposed to be a task on a to-do list, or a burden. They’re supposed to _help_ you deal with everything else in your life. And you...you’ve made my life so much better. Every part of it is brighter and lighter because of you and mmf–”

Kara was cut off by Lena grabbing her face and kissing her like there was no tomorrow. It took Kara a moment to get with the program, but then she was giving as good as she got, tangling her hands in Lena’s hair.

“Oh! Boy...” Once again, Kara and Lena slowly extricated themselves from a rather compromising position as a man nearly bumped into them while exiting the dry cleaners they’d happened to pause in front of this time. In fact, Kara was pretty sure that it was actually the _same_ man, this time with a plastic-wrapped suit tossed over his shoulder, and the bag of chicken slung under his arm.

“Pardon,” he said again, a little fainter this time, eyes flashing around at his surroundings as if there might be more pairs of embracing women ready to leap out into his path.

“Perhaps we should stop scandalizing these innocent patrons,” Lena suggested.

“This time, it was definitely your fault,” Kara said with a grin.

“I’ll take the blame happily,” Lena smiled back, “but I’d point out that you were saying some incredibly kiss-worthy things, and I would have been remiss in my duty as your girlfriend if I didn’t act accordingly.”

Kara would probably have had to fulfill that same duty too what with how adorable Lena was at that moment, but she caught sight of a clock through the window of the dry cleaners and jumped, realizing, “Dang it! I’ve gotta go, and I’m going to have to fly to make my interview on time.”

“You’ll be amazing!” Lena declared as Kara began to back away, loath to let go of her hands.

“And even if I’m not...”

“You’ve got a great back-up career as my trophy wife ahead of you,” Lena assured her. “But it won’t come to that, because you’re smart, qualified, and a thoroughly lovely person to have as an employee.”  

“Well, if _you_ believe in me, that’s more than enough.”

With that, Kara slipped into the shadows and blurred into red and blue, leaping into the sky.

And distantly, on the ground below, she heard Lena say in a quiet, tender tone that only Supergirl could hear, “Good luck, Kara Danvers. I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh they are beautiful and in love and I’m in love with them!!!! I’m highkey invested in them being totally gone on each other and mega cheesy, all the time.  
> And I am going to miss writing Wendy so much. She’s a real gem. Maybe if I ever write any more Kara/Lena, she’ll just be there, randomly...it’s not like silly things like universes or canon could hold a person like her back ;)  
> Drop me a comment if you’ve got the time, I would love to hear your thoughts! <3


End file.
